Small fragile items, such as ceiling fan pulls which are used in conjunction with the pull chain of a ceiling fan, are often packaged individually for resale to the consumer. Heretofore, these packages, which are designed to hang from peg-hooks, have been shipped in loose bulk to retail vendors. The retailer then paid his or her employee to handle each packaged item and hang it from a display. For the convenience of the retailer, the manufacturer may wish to ship the packages pre-hung on a display rack. This saves the retailer the time, i.e. money, and energy that would otherwise be spent manually hanging the packages on a display. This can be very advantageous to the small manufacturer of specialty items, such as ceramic ceiling fan pulls, as it allows the manufacturer to cater to the convenience of the retailer. Thus enhancing retailer acceptance of the manufacturer's product.
Zelinski, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,294, entitled "Shipping and Display Tray and Package", teaches a flat based tray for shipping and subsequent display of oil filters for internal combustion engines. Zelinski teaches that the entire package may be shrink wrapped with a transparent material to aid in securing the filters to the tray especially during the rough handling of shipping.
Dreher, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,611, entitled "Cling Film Overwrap for Palletized Articles", teaches securing a palletized array of articles with at least two substantially superimposed tensioned wraps of a flexible cling film.
Todd, the inventor of the present invention, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,0900,570, entitled "Package for a Small Fragile Item" and Damuth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,861,528, entitled "Invertable Carded Blister Package" each teach various packages which may be hung from a peghook for display of a packaged item.
Govang et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,137, entitled "Display Package Module for Promotional Display Use" teaches a transport and merchandising assembly which consists of package modules which are wrapped in stacks and placed upon a pallet. The package modules consist of a tray-like base component and a sidewall component, the latter of which is easily removeable to expose the product units for display.
Getzner et al., in Austrian Patent No. 270,127, illustrates a four sided display stand with pegs for hanging packages.
Headon in U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,981, entitled "Display Packaging System", discloses a stackable display system for transporting and displaying a multiplicity of essentially similar, essentially rigid products. The Headon system is designed for a stack display of bottled or canned product.
Absent from the art is a method of shipping a modular rack display that is pre-hung with packages, that is wrapped with a heat shrinkable film that prevents the packages from migrating on the hooks and that can be easily removed from its shipping container and quickly assembled for display.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a method of shipping a display rack designed for packaged small fragile items that provides for greater convenience to the retail vendor.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of pre-loading a modular display rack with packages and wrapping each module with a shrinkable film in order to prevent migration of the packages on the module.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such method that can be readily adaptable to pegboard style display racks or conventional wire-frame display racks.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the detailed description together with the drawings as described as follows.